Peine Forte et Dure

A species of torture applied to contumacious felons. In the
reign of Henri IV. the accused was pressed to death by weights; in
later reigns the practice prevailed of tying the thumbs tightly
together with whipcord, to induce the accused to plead. The following
persons were pressed to death by weights:- Juliana Quick, in 1442;
Anthony Arrowsmith, in 1598; Walter Calverly, in 1605; Major
Strangways, in 1657; and even in 1741 a person was pressed to death at
the Cambridge assizes. Abolished 1772.